Alan Caruba's blog is a daily look at events, personalities, and issues from an independent point of view. Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2015. With attribution, posts may be shared. A permission request is welcome. Email acaruba@aol.com.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Depends on When You Were Born

By Alan
Caruba

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We
didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for,
protected, and handed on for them to do the same." ~ Ronald Reagan

My Father
was born in 1901 and was too young for World War One and too old to serve in
World War Two. A gentle, quiet man, he would have been a terrible soldier. My
older brother, however, was inducted in the U.S. Army and served during the
Korean conflict. In the 1960s I served during a period of peace despite Cold
War tensions.

In 1973,
the U.S. ended military conscription, opting for an all-volunteer force. Those
that chose to serve found themselves in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Earlier
there were some minor engagements such as Panama in 1989. It was 9/11 that
changed everything.

The thing
about wars is that, if a nation wants to invade another one, all the laws and
treaties mean nothing. One of the most useless international organizations, the
United Nations, has a long record of not deterring all manner of wars, large
and small, past and present. Then, too, wars are usually preceded by lies the
aggressor puts forth to justify the action and much of what occurs is protected
by a body of lies. The winner gets to write the history.

The last
century had wars that killed millions, many of whom were civilians. A new
generation is witnessing a Syrian war whose casualties now number 170,000. Two
million Syrians are now refugees; a potential threat to the stability of
Lebanon and Jordon. Both sides of the conflict have perpetrated horrors, but
the use of poison gas by President Assad, a major crime against humanity, has
not resulted in any loss of his power. Russia stepped in to give him cover. His
other ally is Iran. Ukraine is likely to split between East and West.

The conflicts
of the current century could escalate into even more massive loss of lives
because nuclear weapons and poison gas have the capability of killing more
people than the bombs of the last century.

Significantly,
it took two atomic bombs to convince the Japanese leaders to surrender, but not
until thousands died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The good news is that no atomic
bombs have been used since. The bad news is that there a crazies like the
Supreme Leader of Iran whose Islamic fanaticism cannot be counted upon to
preclude his use of a nuclear weapon against Israel. Or us.

What is
curious, foolish, and displays a huge ignorance of history is the way President
Obama and his minions have been reducing America’s military. It has been
American power that kept the Cold War with the former Soviet Union from turning
into a hot war and it was that power that was instrumental in causing others to
avoid military confrontations with us. Congress has to set aside the
sequestration limits that affect our military strength and get busy rebuilding
our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. It should do so tomorrow!

The
generation that served in World War Two and in the Korean conflict is no longer
represented by those serving in Congress. Older members have passed away or
retired. The present Congress—particularly its Democratic Party members—are some
of the dumbest and most duplicitous politicians to have ever served there.

Like the
President, they do not hesitate to lie and to spin whatever occurs. In a nation
almost evenly divided politically, it will take a shift by the moderates and
independents in the center to transfer complete political power in Congress to
the Republican Party. Then we have to hope the GOP will more strongly embrace
its principles to undo the damage done by the two elections of Obama and thwart
further damage in his remaining two years in office.

The newest
generations of voters and those who have been around awhile have been living
through a period in which they have been ill-served by a Congress that spent
and borrowed too much. Congress did the same during the Great Depression
through which my parents lived. It
prolonged it from 1929 to 1941 when we entered WWII. One can only hope that
those graduating from college with big loans and no job prospects will vote to
put a stop to that. Joining them will be the Baby Boomers, many of whom also
cannot find work or cannot retire.

We are
living through our own Great Depression for the same reasons Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s solutions did not work. It is the private sector, not the government
that determines the health and growth of the economy. In our case, we have been
a major economic power, number one since 1872. On August 5, 2011, the nation’s top credit
rating was downgraded. The lesson from that event was lost on too many people.

That
too many do not learn from history or are simply ignorant of it explains a lot
about our present times.

No
discussion of our present times would be complete without a look at one of the
greatest legislative catastrophes, Obamacare, ever imposed. It will likely
prove to be the final nail in the Democratic Party coffin for a while. It is a
classic example of the liberal desire to control the most intimate aspects of
our lives, our health and the care it requires, combined with the insane need
to fashion legislation so complex that it cannot work. Worse, it will likely
kill off large numbers of its alleged beneficiaries, particularly the old;
denied or delayed access to nearby hospitals, their personal physicians, et
cetera.

Obamacare
is doomed. It will be repealed. A return of healthcare to the private sector
will do what no amount of government ever can. It is fundamentally
unconstitutional to require people to purchase something they do not want.

America
may be at a significant turning point. Having indulged every government program
to their near extinction—Social Security and Medicare are closing in on
insolvency—we may return to more self-reliance, fiscal prudence, and less
reliance on a government grown too large to do anything well.

It depends
on when you were born whether you will live to see this occur. I likely will not.

4 comments:

"What is curious, foolish, and displays a huge ignorance of history is the way President Obama and his minions have been reducing America’s military."

I am totally and completely convinced that Obama is doing the bidding of his *handlers*...

The military, the firing of so many Flag Officers, reductions in troops and equipment, all designed to weaken the American people and make us more vulnerable to a takeover by outside forces... You can guess which forces, I suspect Islamic but that's just me and my utter hatred for Obama and all that he apparently loves and stands for..

Hey Alan. Great article as usual. The only time that the U.N. did any good was Korea, and the only way that worked was that the Soviet Union was sulking about something and did not attend so was unable to "Veto" the support South Korea so quite a few countries assisted us. And to me that was the highlight of the U.N. Since them the Soviet Union and their "fellow Travelers" have corrupted the U.N. Now it is a joke and nobody pays it much attention. All they do now is bash us and Israel. I am of the firm belief that they need to move the U.N. to Haiti or some other backward country and let them try to fix it...Would give them a grounding in reality.

About Me

I am and have been for a long time a writer by profession. I have several books to my credit and my daily column, "Warning Signs", is disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites, as well as blogs. In addition, I am a longtime book reviewer and have a blog offering a monthly report on new fiction and non-fiction.